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The purpose of this study is to define the essential characteristics of Rastafarian art and to explore it as a part of the Rastafarian social identity. To do this, the paper: (1) examines the Rastafarian movement and its development; (2) discusses the techniques, images, and symbolism used; (3) reviews Rastafarian artists to gain an insight into their expression; and (4) theorizes about Rastafarian art and how it has aided Rastafarians and others outside the movement to understand Rastafarians better. Much of what is known about Rastafarian identity and liberation can be found in the movement art forms. Rastafarian art is the imaginative visualization of the community of Rastafarians, expressed by means of drawing, painting, carving, and sculpting. Some characteristics of this art are symbolic imagery, color, and placements. The work often articulates the struggle of the oppressed person of African descent and can be seen not only on buildings, churches, and homes, but also on kiosks and local sheds that market items related to Rastafarian identity. The beginnings of Rastafarianism can be found in Ethiopia. The characteristics of Rastafarian art forms are often associated with African culture. A true understanding of Rastafarian art cannot be fully gained without a knowledge of Rastafarian history and culture. (Contains 17 references.) (BT)

California, in response to pessimism about the efficacy of public education, adopted the California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST), a three-part test of reading, writing, and mathematics required of teacher applicants. This paper takes a critical look at the genesis, passage, implementation, and consequences of the CBEST legislation. In particular, it analyzes the history of the CBEST to determine the problem or problems it was designed to address, and whether it actually solves such problems. The CBEST was intended to address four problems: (1) the poor performance of California's students; (2) the perception that some teachers were not competent in the basic skills; (3) the relatively low status of the teaching profession; and (4) the alleged poor quality of teacher preparation programs. The era of the CBEST opened officially in December 1982, when 4,952 credential candidates sat for the exam. Since then about three-quarters of candidates pass on the first attempt, but passing rates for minority candidates are lower. While there has been real growth in student achievement in California, there is no evidence that the CBEST has contributed to these gains. The CBEST tests basic skills, but whether these translate into effective teaching is another question that has not been studied. There are suggestions that the CBEST helps enhance teacher professionalism, as its acceptance by the California Teachers Association indicates. Whether the CBEST improves teacher training is also not clear, but it is evident that the test serves to reduce the diversity of the teaching force. In large part, the story of the CBEST is the story of political symbolism. How it became a symbol of the effort for educational improvement, and how that symbol became entrenched in the educational organization in California is outlined. The CBEST has become institutionalized by the state's universities and colleges as an aspect of teacher training and a structure bound to the operation of teacher training institutions. Three appendixes present sample questions, the description of a borderline candidate, and selected CBEST results. (Contains 55 references.) (SLD)

This paper describes the development of an outdoor education camp that assists young people in recognizing new responsibilities and celebrating transition into young adulthood. Using the concept of initiation, the camp marked the beginning of a process which involved adolescents in developing an identity as young adults, increasing personal responsibility, and strengthening personal and group support networks. Students entering upper secondary school participated in the "rites of passage," an initiation process which took place during a 5-day camping trip on the southwest coast of Australia. Key components were based on traditional practices and included the role of elders as guides and mentors, the symbolic journey, physical and psychological challenges, the creation of a vision of self and place, responsibility for self and others, support through networks, reintegration into the school community, and the sharing of experiences through school publications. The outdoor education initiation process could be applied to other settings, including work with troubled youth. (SAS)

Eleven cemeteries in Wyoming are examined for visuals pertaining to life in the West. The purpose is to demonstrate the importance of Western culture tradition evidenced through tombstone symbolism--representations of the activities and environments of the living through the memory provided by the deceased. The visual symbols found on the tombstones are presented in the following categories: environment, artifacts, and people. Environmental features that occurred most frequently were related to water, wind, wildlife, trees, wildflowers and mountains. The artifacts of Western culture represented on the tombstones centered on technologies that have been developed to cope with the Western environment, including homes, apparel, transport systems, mechanisms for protecting and identifying belongings, and methods for obtaining needed resources. In the category, people, the occupations most often reflected in the tombstone motifs were associated with agriculture, railroading, mining, and timber, as well as themes dealing with the lifework of the cowboy. As the tombstones represented in this study demonstrate, a society's culture is reflected in the memorial visuals that can be found in cemeteries. Thirty-one figures show tombstones from the three categories. (Contains 11 references.) (AEF)

The recent Irish film "Into the West" (1992) explores the myth of the West on two continents. Images from television and movies appear as a visual reference point within "Into the West"; the main characters, two young Irish boys, are fascinated with the American West of cowboys and Indians as depicted in countless Hollywood versions. The image of the horse operates as the common denominator to the exploration of both myths, since the boys embark on a rescue mission after they see a horse that was stolen from them appear in a televised sporting event. The horse as visual icon crosses the boundaries of time, space, and culture; it defines the parameters of the Western genre in theme and style and represents key elements of the identity of the cowboy. Traditionally, the traits of power and freedom associated with the depictions of the horse shape the masculine identity of the cowboy. "Into the West" shows how the bonding process of horse and man frequently represents a rite of passage for young Westerners, an initiation into manhood. As in other Western sagas, the journey of the two main characters represents both physical movement across the landscape and spiritual quest. (AEF)

Accurately denoting colors and measuring their meanings have been long-standing challenges for scholars and artists alike. This study addressed this problem by suggesting that the use of a model of cyan, magenta, and yellow primary colors--which is common in industry but is generally neglected by scholars and fine artists--could greatly benefit scholars who conduct color-related research. In the study, over 500 fictitious trademarks were uniquely colored by using this commercial model. Questionnaires soliciting reactions to these trademarks were completed by a total of 569 respondents, with 38 eventually being discarded because participants indicated that they were color blind or slightly color blind. Respondents were each randomly assigned a one-page questionnaire. On the top right of the questionnaire was the randomly colored trademark; the participant was asked to evaluate the trademark in terms of 57 scales. The results revealed five predominant scales, or factors, which accounted for 90% of the total variance examined in this research: "activity,""up scale,""nice,""worn out," and "brassy." For example, respondents tended to see companies as more active when their trademarks contained a substantial amount of cyan while lacking yellow. The greater percentage of yellow used in a trademark, the more its company was perceived as "worn out." This study calls for the use of the professional color model of cyan, magenta, and yellow to become the conventional measure in future scholarly research of color. The questionnaire is appended. (Contains 28 references.) (AEF)

Work in the design and construction of virtual environments (VEs) is described from the standpoint of semiotic theory. It is advocated that well-constructed visual worlds can create in a person the feelings and cognitions that arise from being in the natural world and that interactions with computer-constructed VEs are mediated through signs. The Human Interface Technology Laboratory at the University of Washington uses VEs for specific instructional purposes and also uses the construction of VEs by students as a way for them to learn content. The design of VEs draws guidance from research in human factors and from the general principles of semiotics. Semiotic theory rests on the proposition that we cannot know the world as it truly is, but only through signs. In the conceptual framework for VEs, knowledge is constructed from information by students. A constructivist learning paradigm was used with 120 seventh and eighth graders who undertook the construction of VE worlds through a process based on semiotic-centered practices. The experiences of these students are described and followed with a discussion of how the sense of presence engendered by VEs can be increased through the manipulation of signs by learners. (Contains 55 references.) (SLD)

This paper defines visual literacy, provides a synopsis of the current research on political awareness among today's youth, and shows how using political cartoons with children and adolescents will enhance their political cognition. It introduces the political cartoon, defining and describing what makes a political cartoon particularly effective in terms of teaching visual literacy. The political cartoon may be one means by which politics can be more relevant to the young. It is a visual editorial, an interpretive picture which makes use of symbolism and bold and humorous exaggeration to present a message or point of view concerning people, events, or situations. The political cartoon can be used with young people to teach visual literacy by: (1) training the right hemisphere of the brain; (2) training for familiarity of conventions; (3) teaching abstractness and symbolism, decoding strategies, ridicule, satire, and parody; (4) helping children learn to glean abstract meaning from visual literacy; (5) training children to communicate in nonverbal ways; (6) helping children operate at higher cognitive levels through creative and critical thinking; (7) enhancing the political cognition of the young; teaching concepts of conflict, dissent, and criticism in politics; and (8) helping make the young more realistic consumers of U.S. politics. Appendices describing the editorial cartoon and a model for interpreting editorial cartoons are provided. (Author/SWC)

This paper explores the association between the symbolized and the actualized, beginning with the prehistoric notion of a "reality double," in which no practical difference exists between pictorial representations, visual symbols, and real-life events and situations. Alchemists of the Middle Ages, with their paradoxical vision of the universe having mixed elements of the physical world and the imagined characteristics of mystical and spiritual forces, are prophets of the modern age. Their ideas have been the basis for some modern scientific discoveries, as the visions they foretold through highly visual symbols became conscious to the mind of man and contributed to a redefinition of reality. Based on a belief in the redefined reality, in which things and people could be altered to form more useful or valuable elements, a curriculum was created for vocational and spiritual training, with state support, that was to be provided uniformly across classes. Interest in redefining reality was revived at the beginning of the 20th century through the following set of circumstances: (1) laws of atomic physics changed forever the notion of the nature of matter, and no longer could the idea of fixed reality be assumed; and (2) birth of the sciences of psychology and psychiatry, and an acceptance of the existence of the subconscious, an extranatural or mystical aspect of man. Through time, artists have symbolically expressed their visions of new realities that were "abstract" and lacking in absolutes. In addition, mass media created an illusion of reality, both consciously and subconsciously. (MAS)

This guide and accompanying videotape are the fifth and final in a series that present full lessons and interviews with the instructors who created the lessons. Intended as starting points to stimulate thinking about a comprehensive approach to art education, these instructors discuss how they developed their lessons and how this approach has positively impacted their teaching and their students' capacity for learning. These materials focus on school-museum collaborations and highlight a program at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. Working hand-in-hand, classroom teachers and curators engage students not only in analyzing and interpreting original works of art, but also in conbributing creative artifacts to exhibit installations. Divided into two parts, Episode A takes a look at Susan Mudle's fourth-grade class' field trip and the way the students compare/contrast two Dutch paintings. Episode B follows art teacher Patricia Johnston's high school class as she leads them on a directed study adventure exploring the life and works of contemporary artist Eric Fischl. After extensive research, this class' adventure culminates in a face-to-face dialogue with the artist himself, surrounded by his work at the museum. (DQE)

This paper examines leadership and its links to success in five urban schools in Melbourne (Australia), reflecting the view that the role of leaders and the process of leadership are significant contributing factors to the achievement of successful school improvement. The elementary and secondary schools studied offer a range of the characteristics associated with Australian urban schools. Interviews, observation, and examination of documents provided information about collaborative leadership in these schools. Collaborative elements explored were: (1) structural frame; (2) human resource frame; (3) political frame; and (4) symbolic frame. A synthesis of hypothesized causal links was developed outside the four frames to effect a distillation of causal links. Dominant factors that were apparent included the development of the educational potential of students and the professional development of teachers, as well as good organizational health and the institutionalization of vision. These four demonstrable factors that generate a collaborative culture of leadership are inextricably linked and dependent on each other. (Contains 102 references.) (SLD)

This paper places the text of a Kashaya traditional narrative in cultural context and analyzes linguistic, poetic, and rhetorical features that contribute to its artistry. In part, this necessitates a reconstruction of the culture that gave rise to the narrative itself, in the tradition of much Native American anthropology, as both the language of the narrative and the gambling game it describes are no longer an active part of the Kashaya culture today. In the interim, the narrator of the gambling myth opened the door to linguists and anthropologists more than three decades ago to preserve as much traditional information as possible for future generations. Brief fragments of the narrator's formal and conversational speech are included as a narrow window onto the culture at that time to illustrate the prevailing conditions that facilitated preservation of the text. The gambling game depicts a traditional gambling game between coast creatures and forest creatures. Background information is provided on the game. The differences between the traditional context of telling coyote stories and the performance that is represented by the text are described. Finally, the poetic and rhetorical structure of the text in terms of grammatical and thematic parallelism, forms of reference, morphological marking, and other narrative devices are examined. Contains 39 references. (Author/JL)

Theories of neuroscience are presented to demonstrate the significance of storytelling and narrative to education by relating brain function to learning. A few key concepts are reviewed to establish a common working vocabulary with regard to neural networks. The tensor network theory and the neurognosis theory are described to provide understanding of brain functions during learning. It is apparent that learning is based on previous learning, and that unless new information is related to preexisting student interest and knowledge, there will be no previously established neural network to which students can connect new extensions. Educators must work with the functioning of student brains, and not against it. They must recognize that the brain is structured, or "wired," to detect patterns and that there is an underlying impulse to take in information in symbolic form. Storytelling and narratives are a good way to encourage new connections and the recognition of new patterns and relationships among objects and ideas. An example is given in a description of students who learn the geography of West Africa through story-telling rather than through memorizing lists of facts and geographic details. (Contains 6 references.) (SLD)

The term "dramaturgy" is derived from the notion of a theoretical performance. In the theater, the audience consents to temporarily suspend disbelief and unquestionably accepts the reality presented on stage. The actors, however, understand that the reality they present is constituted. This paper presents an ethnographic account and analysis of one elementary principal's use of dramaturgy to achieve hegemony within the school. The dramaturgies the principal performed, particularly his annual Halloween ride as the Headless Horseman, became powerful symbols of the dominant ideology the principal represented in the school. Examined are the social interactions through which a principal attempts to achieve the acceptance of the culture and ideology of the dominant social group in children of nondominant groups. First, there is a discussion of critical theory and hegemony through the cultural patterns of a dominant group. This is followed by a description of the research procedure detailing the use of ethnographic techniques. Next is a first-person account of the Halloween dramaturgy. It describes the actions of the principal and reactions of the researcher, students, teachers, and other people in the community. A discussion of dramaturgy and the example of the Headless Horseman provide the basis of the concluding discussion. (Contains 33 references.) (RR)

Communication theorists often make a distinction between two different ways in which a sign or a symbol can evoke meaning. In digital representation, the symbol's domain of reference is conceptually carved up into discrete units represented by purely arbitrary symbols. In analogical representation, the symbol retains a continuous correspondence with one or more dimensions of its referent. Recent scholarship has tended to emphasize the digital side, but this paper draws attention to aspects of analogical representation, arguing that the mental process through which viewers derive meaning from pictures is often based on implicit analogical thinking. Analogical thinking seems to play a major role in the evocation of meaning through abstract qualities and the control of the viewer's emotional engagement through point of view. The most obvious locus of analogical significance in film and television may be in editing. Analogical implications are central to a wide array of visual devices, and it is possible that in learning to make sense of visual communication, we also acquire an enhanced facility in analogical thinking. (Contains 38 references.) (SLD)

Today's literature on the psychology of learning points out that intelligent learning is the formation of concept structures communicated and manipulated by means of symbols. The study presented in this paper examines the learning of biology by means of unguided viewing of television using two different television symbol systems: story animation and documentary. The Story Animation Code consists of unusual complex illustrations and the Documentary Code is made up of scientific symbols--models, schematic drawings, and other drawings used in the teaching of science. Results demonstrate the educational potential of television in out-of-school situations. Viewing television broadcasts presenting biological concepts resulted in a significant improvement in knowledge. Gain, calculated by posttest minus pretest scores, was found in both codes and the students were equally sympathetic to them. Better knowledge gain and more positive attitudes were found towards the story animation code, but the gain was also accompanied by misconceptions. Results support the theory that perception of the visual field does not depend merely on sight-related factors. Even when no similarity exists between the pictorial representation and reality, a series of inferences can still be drawn from the picture by using the information it contains about itself. (Contains 16 references.) (AEF)

Scholars in the field of communication theory and research have ignored and problematized the relationship between sign and meaning. This paper discusses the relationship in order to catalogue the different positions taken and to investigate the work that gets done from these positions. In the "brute sense data" or physicalist position, the character of the sign is responsible for encoding, decoding, and interpretation. The perceptionist position occupies a broad region, noting only certain discrepancies in the reception and interpretation of sensory information, speculating on perceptual realities only loosely connected to sensation. The constructionist draws the conclusion which the perceptionist resists: if perception intervenes between understanding and the phenomenal world then humans must be active participants in co-constructing the world they believe in. The hermeneuticist places meaning in the successful expression of power. For the physicalist and the perceptionist, signs have meanings independent of their creation; for the constructionist and hermeneutist there is nothing prior to semiotics in understanding and meaning is a cultural production. Two tables accompany the discussion and present the relationship between sign and meaning in the realms of sign production and interpretation for each of the four positions. (Contains 45 references.) (AEF)

This paper presents an examination of United States presidents' names as symbols. In developing the analysis, the paper: (1) reviews multiple perspectives which suggest that allusions to past presidents (such as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, or Franklin Roosevelt) are significant political symbols; (2) discusses how allusions to past presidents function in specific situations such as ceremonies and political rallies; and (3) briefly explores the presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Ronald Reagan via presidential allusions. The paper observes that for each of the three men, allusions to other presidents occurred most frequently in ceremonial situations, and may have reflected attempts to shape societal values by providing a symbol of praiseworthy action. The paper concludes that the study adds one more layer of detail for understanding the presidency as well as American political culture. Sixty-four endnotes are included. (Author/SG)

A geographer and a developmental psychologist collaborated on an investigation of the development of children's ability to comprehend, produce, and use graphic representations of space. Such representations are called "geo-graphics" in this paper. The researchers held that children's mastery of maps is dependent on their developing understanding of symbols in general, of logical reasoning, and of integrated spatial conceptual systems. Evidence for children's misunderstanding of both the duality and arbitrariness of symbols was derived from responses showing children's failure to separate graphic characteristics of the symbol from physical characteristics of the referent. This could be seen first in children's overextension of iconic qualities, and second, in their oversubscription to graphic conventions. Many situations were observed in which the child identified some characteristic of the symbol, and then inappropriately inferred from that characteristic that the referent must be characterized in the same way. Evidence indicated that children appeared to adhere rigidly to certain graphic rules that may come from other graphic forms than maps. There were many indications of children's confusion in understanding the scale and viewing angle of maps. There was informal evidence that adults, too, may overextend qualities of the representation to the referent. (RH)

Reviews cognitive science models of learning and transfer, especially representations, structures standing for something else. Presents examples of how representations support or hinder problem solving and communication. Discuses paradoxes involved in attempting to teach critical thinking. (Contains 33 references.) (SK)

Uses three types of isomorphism--normative, coercive, and mimetic--to illustrate how organizational socialization an be interpreted as a symbolic response to societal expectations. Advances institutional theory by demonstrating that socialization is not exclusively pragmatic. (Contains 106 references.) (SK)